1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to a method and apparatus for detecting a medicinal substance and, more specifically, to method and apparatus for optically identifying and optionally counting individual units of a medicinal substance with a computer apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditional methods of dispensing drugs require a pharmacist to manually retrieve a container storing the drug to be dispensed. The container is typically stored on a shelf with many other containers storing different drugs, requiring the pharmacist to select the proper container based on the human-readable label content appearing on each label. Once a container has been retrieved, the pharmacist removes tablets, capsules or other units of a drug in solid form (generally referred to herein as “pills”) from the container and the desired quantity to be dispensed manually counted by the pharmacist.
Pharmacists will perform such a procedure many times throughout a workday. The frequent repetition of this procedure can cause fatigue to set in, possibly causing the pharmacist to confuse a prescribed quantity of one drug with the prescribed quantity of another drug. Further, the pharmacist may misread the label content on a container, resulting in the wrong drug being dispensed.